Apparently, Aaron Harang felt he had nothing to prove to the Cincinnati Reds.

The Dodgers right-hander pitched for the Reds for seven years, the majority of his major league career, and hadn’t faced them in a regular-season game since.

There was, however, a forgettable Cactus League game between the Reds and San Diego Padres on March 9, 2011. Harang, then a Padre, allowed seven runs in three innings that day.

By doing so, he laid the foundation for his next outing against the Reds, a seven-inning gem Wednesday at Dodger Stadium that made the Dodgers’ 4-1 win possible.

For Harang, the value of pitching three forgettable innings against the Reds a year ago came into sharp focus Wednesday.

“I think it’s just getting the nerves out the way,” he said. “You get that feeling like there’s something – that feeling of trying to prove something. If a player tells you he isn’t, he’s lying to you.

“You kind of hype it up too much, then you’re overly anxious.”

Harang allowed three hits – matching a season-low – and only one run in seven innings against the Reds. He walked one and struck out five.

A fifth-inning home run by Cincinnati catcher Devin Mesoraco, a laser to the left-field pavilion, accounted for the Reds’ run.

The Dodgers scored three runs in the first inning and never looked back.

The win was dampened only by an injury to shortstop Dee Gordon, who dislocated his right (throwing) thumb stealing third base in the eighth inning.

“It looked disfigured,” he said.

Manager Don Mattingly said an X-ray on Gordon’s thumb revealed no broken bones, but the team won’t have a timetable for Gordon’s return until an MRI exam is performed today.

Still, Gordon was expected to fly with the team to Phoenix on Wednesday night. The Dodgers will play four straight going into the All-Star break against the Arizona Diamondbacks beginning today.

After losing seven straight games – including five via shutout – the Dodgers have back-to-back wins for the first time since June 9-10.

Harang won for the first time since June 7, a span of four straight starts during which he’s gone 0-2 with a 4.03 ERA.

“Really, he had plenty left to go back out” in the eighth inning, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. “He politicked a little bit, but if he gets into trouble, you get into the lefties.”

Harang wanted to finish what he started for two reasons.

The first was familiarity. Barry Larkin and Ken Griffey Jr. were on the Reds when Harang went to Cincinnati in a midseason trade with Oakland in 2003.

Fourteen players wearing Reds uniforms Wednesday were on the team in 2010, when Harang last pitched for them.

The other reason Harang didn’t want to come out: “I felt good,” he said. “I was in control of the game.” I was never in a situation where I was pitching out of jams, except … in the third inning.”

In that inning, Mesoraco reached on an error by Adam Kennedy to lead off the inning. Zack Cozart singled with one out, but Harang got out of the inning by retiring Joey Votto on a fly ball.

Gordon led off the game with a double. Luis Cruz followed with an RBI single and went from first to third on a single by Bobby Abreu. The next batter, James Loney, drove in Cruz with a single. Kennedy’s groundout scored Abreu from second base, and the Dodgers had all the runs they would need five batters into the game.